In a Remarkable Breakthrough, Scientists Reprogrammed Cancer Cells Back to Normal

Despite some rapid advancements in medical science in recent years, there are still many incurable diseases whose causes are unknown.

Cancer is one such disease. It kills about 8.2 million people worldwide every year. This number is expected to rise by about 70% over the next two decades.

But researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Florida claim to have found a code for turning off cancer. Though the work is still at an early stage, it brings the hope that there will be fewer cancer deaths in future.

Unlike conventional chemotherapy treatments that kill both cancerous as well as healthy cells, this treatment will be far less destructive.

The researchers found that a new protein called PLEKHA7 could transform cancer cells into benign cells.

Cancer researchers demonstrated a method to disarm highly dangerous bladder cancer cells and render them harmless. They think that this approach can be applied to most cancers, including lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. You can also find Nidhi on Google+.